The Economy of Poetics
On the Virtues of Self-Sustaining and Simple Living
by V.I. Postnikov
“Let the beauty we love be what we do.” – Rumi
“The environmental crisis is the crisis of aesthetics.” – James Hillman
“The poet knows of no ‘waste’…. Ecopoetics is the way of thinking economically.” – Hwa Yol Jung
It is the right time for poets and artists to engage in economics. We can’t allow the greedy and self-important “experts†and “economists†to push the world to the brink of catastrophe. A lot has already been written and said about the impending collapse — I won’t repeat it.
The idea is that the systemic collapse could be prevented, or, at least, alleviated, by invoking an inner artist in everyone and directing the artistic creativity to the dismantling of the Mega-Machine. Roughly speaking, in order to survive, we need to decentralize the economy as soon as possible by reducing it to an individual craftsmanship. I understand all the objections and losses involved, even fierce opposition, but the gains are superlative. Ultimately, people will see it as the only strategy, whether pre- or post-collapse.
